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6.28.2015

Private School : Students Boost National SAT Scores

November 3, 2014 -- The headlines in early October captured some of the story: “2014 SAT Scores Remain Stagnant,” “Student Performance Stalls on SAT.” They reflected what the College Board itself reported: SAT scores for the 2014 crop of high school graduates were stubbornly stuck at levels “similar to other recent senior classes.”

But the fixation on stagnation largely ignored another important element of the story: scores varied significantly by the type of school students attended. It turns out that students who graduated from religious and independent schools had scores that substantially outdistanced those of students in public schools and actually helped lift the national average. Mean SAT scores for public school seniors were 492 in reading, 478 in writing, and 501 in math. Comparable scores for students in independent schools were 535, 542, and 580. Meanwhile, students in religious schools scored 533, 527, and 537 (see table).